---
title: Nụ cười đầu tiên của em Lê Thị Cam (Little Le Thi Cam's First Smile)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/little-le-thi-cam-first-smile-1966/
description: A photo-story poster (code SP-1314) tells of Le Thi Cam, born 1958 in Quang Nam, whose cleft lip was repaired by a visiting American surgical team at Da
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. Nụ cười đầu tiên của em Lê Thị Cam (Little Le Thi Cam's First Smile)

**Content note:** Photographs of a child with an unrepaired cleft lip, shown beside the post-operation account, as issued. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Nụ cười đầu tiên của em Lê Thị Cam, 1966 US poster: A photo-story poster (code SP-1314) tells of Le Thi Cam, born 1958](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/little-le-thi-cam-first-smile-1966.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/little-le-thi-cam-first-smile-1966.jpg)

# Nụ cười đầu tiên của em Lê Thị Cam (Little Le Thi Cam's First Smile)

A photo-story poster (code SP-1314) tells of Le Thi Cam, born 1958 in Quang Nam, whose cleft lip was repaired by a visiting American surgical team at Da Nang in March 1966. Photographs show her before and after the operation, a doctor examining her, and her father taking her to the hospital. The poster ties one child's named case to the American medical mission, with the doctors described as kindly men who have helped many children like her.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

Original (Vietnamese) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
NỤ CƯỜI ĐẦU TIÊN
của em
LÊ THỊ CAM

Đây em Lê Thị Cam sinh năm 1958 tại Quảng-Nam, đã cảm thấy tủi thân vì không may mắn với tật sứt môi. Nhờ đoàn giải-phẩu Hoa-Kỳ nay tật đã lành và lần đầu tiên em đã có thể mỉm cười sung sướng.

Em Cam, trước khi chiếc môi được giải phẩu. Em đã phải buồn tủi mỗi khi bị chúng bạn chế nhạo môi "Không đẹp".

Tháng Ba 1966, Ông Duy, ba em Cam nghe có đoàn Y-Tế Hoa-Kỳ chuyên giải-phẩu đến Đà-Nẵng để chữa trị giúp đồng-bào tật nguyền, liền liên-lạc với nhân viên hữu trách và đem em Cam đến bệnh viện.

Một trong những bác-sĩ đang xem xét trước khi giải-phẩu. Những vị bác-sĩ hiền lành này đã cứu giúp nhiều trẻ như bé Cam đây.

SP-1314
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
THE FIRST SMILE OF LITTLE LE THI CAM

This is Le Thi Cam, born in 1958 in Quang Nam, who felt wretched because of her misfortune of a cleft lip. Thanks to the American surgical team the defect has now healed and for the first time she can smile happily.

Cam, before her lip was operated on. She was sad and ashamed whenever her playmates mocked her lip as "not pretty".

In March 1966, Mr. Duy, Cam's father, heard that an American medical team specialising in surgery was coming to Da Nang to treat disabled compatriots, and at once contacted the officials in charge and took Cam to the hospital.

One of the doctors examining her before the operation. These kindly doctors have saved and helped many children like little Cam.

SP-1314
```

[← Lần thứ hai chiến thắng Bu-Prang, Quảng-Đức (Another Victory at Bu Prang, Quang Duc)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lan-thu-hai-chien-thang-bu-prang-quang-duc-1966/) [Chiến thắng Long-Phi 955 của Sư-đoàn 9 Bộ-binh (The 955th Long Phi Victory by the 9th Infantry Division) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/long-phi-955-victory-9th-infantry-division-1966/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Manufactured consensus)
- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.